ISE lecture (July 15th)

Jun. 23, 2022

We are happy to announce that the third speaker within the NU:ISE lecture series will be *Dr. Toshihide Hige*, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. Dr. Hide will present some of his work on "*Circuit mechanisms of higher-order associative learning*", please see the abstract below. The lecture will be held in hybrid form, both face-to-face and /via /Microsoft Teams on _Friday_July 15th at 4:30 pm JST_. Location to be announced to registered participants on Teams. Your participation will be greatly appreciated.

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*What*: NU:ISE lecture
*By who*: Dr. Toshihide Hige, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
*For who*: Faculty & Early Career Scientists within the Graduate School of Science; D & M students. B students and members from other faculties are welcome.
*Scientific discipline*: Biology
*When*: Friday July 15th, 4:30 pm JST
*Duration*: 1 hour (~ 30-40 min presentation; ~ 20-30 min discussion)
*Where*: Microsoft Teams & in person at the NU Higashiyama Campus, registration through *this link*

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*Abstract*

*Circuit mechanisms of higher-order associative learning*
A large body of circuit mapping studies in the learning and memory field has focused on relatively simple forms of learning such as classical conditioning, which requires direct association between sensory stimulus and reward or punishment. However, learning we experience in our daily lives often involves indirect associations (e.g. observational learning). Circuit basis of such higher-order associative learning has been largely unknown. By exploiting the EM connectome data together with behavioral, electrophysiological and imaging approaches in Drosophila, we recently identified the circuit involved in second-order conditioning, an ethologically important form of higher-order associative learning observed across species. Our results highlight the importance of hierarchical connections between dopamine-dependent memory circuits. I will also discuss how this newly identified circuit contributes to flexible action selection after learning.

*Biography*

Toshi received his Ph.D. from Kyoto University, where he studied synaptic physiology using rat brain slices. He switched to systems neuroscience in Drosophila when he started his postdoc in Glenn Turner's lab at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He moved to Janelia Research Campus of Howard Hughes Medical Institute as a research scientist, and then to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he started his own lab as an assistant professor in 2018.

*About NU:ISE*

Last January, we started a new lecture series entitled: "Nagoya University: International Science Exchange" (NU:ISE). In this lecture series, we invite early career scientists from all over the globe to present their research, and in turn we would like to encourage one of our own early career scientists to present their work at the guest's home institute, either within the same or a different scientific discipline.

The aim of this series is to establish new connections and promote international collaboration. As such, lectures will not only include (ready-to-be) published results, but also unsolved problems or open questions that require external input to be answered. Through this format we hope to stimulate discussion and scientific exchange.

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